PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to picks@whowhatwhy.org.
‘They Wouldn’t Care If I Was Dead’ — Staffer Fallout From Jan. 6 Continues (DonkeyHotey)
From Roll Call: “A congressional staffer froze recently when elevator doors opened and there stood a member of the House who has downplayed the violence of the Jan. 6 insurrection. Some congressional employees are shaken by what they see as the whitewashing of the attack, and the denials have reignited lingering trauma. One House employee who works in the Capitol building and heard the rioters banging on their office door said seeing the lawmakers try to erase the destruction is jarring.”
GOP Gubernatorial Candidate, a Physician, Goes to Court to Stop Youth COVID Vaccinations (Reader Steve)
From Pioneer Press: “Scott Jensen, a prominent Minnesota Republican candidate for governor with a track record of COVID-19 theories not shared by the medical community, has signed onto an effort to stop vaccinations for 12- to 16-year-olds. Jensen, a family physician from Chaska who served in the state Senate from 2017 to 2021, is the first named plaintiff in a petition filed in federal court in Alabama by America’s Frontline Doctors, a group that has attempted to diminish the pandemic that has killed more than 590,000 Americans and pushed misleading and false information about the coronavirus, its lethality and debunked treatments and preventions, such as the use of hydroxychloroquine.”
The Full Story of the Stunning RSA Hack Can Finally Be Told (Sean)
The author writes, “Amid all the sleepless hours that Todd Leetham spent hunting ghosts inside his company’s network in early 2011, the experience that sticks with him most vividly all these years later is the moment he caught up with them. Or almost did. It was a spring evening, he says, three days—maybe four, time had become a blur — after he had first begun tracking the hackers who were rummaging through the computer systems of RSA, the corporate security giant where he worked. … And with a growing sense of dread, Leetham had finally traced the intruders’ footprints to their final targets: the secret keys known as ‘seeds,’ a collection of numbers that represented a foundational layer of the security promises RSA made to its customers, including tens of millions of users in government and military agencies, defense contractors, banks, and countless corporations around the world.”
Barack Obama and Marcus Rashford Talk About the Power of the Next Generation (Nick)
The author writes, “As well as being a superstar for Manchester United and England, Marcus Rashford is using his platform to help others less fortunate than him. Last year, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Rashford led a campaign to end child food poverty and successfully lobbied the British government to continue providing free school meals during the holidays. … And the 23-year-old can count former US President Barack Obama as one of his admirers after all his hard work.”
Palestinian Artist Khaled Jarrar Has Made an NFT to Call International Attention to the Plight of His Homeland (Dan)
From Artnet News: “After 11 days of violence, Hamas and Israel announced a ceasefire early Friday morning. It was the worst bout of fighting in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza in seven years and one that shook every corner of the world. Several months prior, Ramallah-based artist Khaled Jarrar began work on a series that he hoped would raise awareness of the 73-year issue of Palestinian occupation among the international community. To do that, he chose a medium very much in the news: NFTs. Jarrar’s NFT, titled If I don’t steal your home someone else will steal it, launched on May 13, just as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) began carrying out airstrikes in Gaza City, leaving around 119 dead.”
Schitt’s Creek, but in Real Life: Owner Tries Selling California Desert Town (Russ)
The author writes, “In the award-winning television show ‘Schitt’s Creek,’ the owners of the tiny town of the same name try to sell it, with no luck. Roxanne Lang feels like she’s been living that story line on repeat. For more than half a decade now, she has been trying to sell her own town, an 80-acre plot of land on the California side of the Mojave Desert, about an hour away from Las Vegas. It’s now on the market again for $2.75 million.”
